Business

Mumbai: The rupee dropped the most in more than a month on speculation capital inflows have slowed after India's biggest equity offering in a year. Government bonds were little changed.

The rupee declined 0.7 per cent to 53.8550 per dollar in Mumbai, the biggest drop since January 4, according to data. It touched 53.8650 earlier, the lowest level since January 29.The currency fell 0.6 per cent in the five days through February 8, snapping a four-week advance.

One-month implied volatility, a gauge of expected moves in the exchange rate used to price options, rose three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, yesterday to 9.28 per cent. Markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are closed yesterday for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The government raised Rs114.7 billion ($2.1 billion) last week, selling a stake in the nation's biggest power producer NTPC, the New Delhi-based company's chairman Arup Roy Choudhury said. The rupee weakened for a fourth day after the US reported the smallest trade deficit in three years, helping improve demand for the dollar. The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major trading partners, traded near a four-week high.

"The rupee's recent gains were due to bunched-up inflows and now they are no longer there, we'll see bunched-up dollar demand in play," said J. Moses Harding, executive vice president at IndusInd Bank. "I think the dollar will stay strong."